St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1887-03-30
WALL STREET ORPHANS.
Hen Who Come to Beg, Borrow and
Steal.
Few Golden Coins Visible on the
Street.-The Check System.

New York Journal.
In 10 place are so many hard-up men to
be found as in Wall street. They are in
about the same fix as the Ancient Mariner.
There is money everywhere but not cent
have they to spend. The almighty dollar Is
more plentiful in the street than anywhere
else, but it is difficult of access. 1t Is IN
plain sight, but out of the reach OF those
who want it most
People come from all quarters of the
globe to beg, borrow and steal in Wall
street. The persons who come to beg are
not the same ones who come to borrow, and
the ones who come to borrow are not the
ones who come to steal.
Each class is different, but each class has
about the same amount of luck. II there
is any class that has the poorest luck 1t is
the class that wants to steal.
Wall street men do not go around with
greenbackS sticking out of their pockets and
they do not either, have big piles of them
on their desks to alleviate optical affections.
The greenbacks and hard money in Wall
street are kept behind bars and bolts in
almost precisely the same manner as the
men who sinfully covet them ought to DE.
The business of the spectators and
brokers is done by checks. Millions pass
from hand to hand, but in such shape that
the money can only be obtained by the
af1iXing of the signatures of the men for
whom it is intended.
Messenger boys are sent from offices to
banks with checks for hundreds of thou
sands Of dollars carried loosely in their
hands. Only green thief would think of
snatching check from messenger boy
1t would be useless waste of energy to
make the eXertiOn to secure the piece OF
paper representing dollars.ss
The system of checks has made the Street
the poorest theater of operation for thief
1t is related by one of the truthful detect
ives who spend day after day in a hopeless
search for something to do, that few days
ago skilled plunderer came to the Street
to look around.
The knowledge of the presence of so
much money and his utter inability to
fasten his predatory fingers on it made him
threaten to commit suicide. His occupation
was gone.
He was dissuaded from his fatal purpose,
however, by the promise of the kind
hearted detectives to get him q job as CASH
ier in bank so that he might have some
thing to do in his own line and not feel that
| ut udu uIdWll DldQk Ill llIe.
The beggarS are too numerous to men
ton. They are of all descriptions. and
| their demands are of all degrees. They
demand all sums, from a cent to million.
AS a rule they stand as good chance to
obtain one as the other. The men in the
street who have money are besought from
morning until night to give, until their
| riches are a burden to them, and they saw
agely repulse the duplicating horde.
The beggars want money to buy every
thing, from tombstOnes to patent leather
| pumps for the Hottentots. The beggars do
| not seem to realize that the street is hard
place for the men in it to keep what they
have got for the reason that they are all
trying, by every trick and device, to add to
their gains, while it is not one in hum
| dred who succeeds in any more than hold
ing his own.
| The struggle for the coveted wealth is
| fierce and the winners Of it feel like keep
ing it. Philanthropy is not the spirit that
| is bred among the bulls and bears. The
motto as applied to finance is: EVERY man
for himself and the devil for the hindmost."
The devil mas large allence right along.
The borrowers are the men who work the
street with the most adeptnass. They are
professionals. 1t is no matter of mere need
with them. They have needs that go or
| forever. They are drones in the great
hive of which the stock exchange is the
center.
Most of them are men who adhere to the
belief that the world owes them a living fol
the reason that it is good deal easier than
working for it. They acquire an acquaint-
anceship in the street and proceed to live
on it. They make it as big as possible.
They strike the people they know for small
| sums.
Calculating that ''many mickles make a
muckle' they pull the leg'' OF several on
one occasion for gains with the result that
an aggregate amount Of respectable proper
lions is secured. To ''pull the leg" OF a
person on Wall street is to request loan
from him. The borrowers request small
loans for the reason that they are surer OF
getting them and for the additional reason
that they can go oftener than il they made
| application for an accommodation of large
proportions.
There are broken-down spectators who
are haunted by the memory of the piles
they once possessed and hover dispairingly
about the spot where their money vanished.
These men the successful spectators look
upon as the orphans Of the stock market.
and put their hands in their pockets as a
There are persons who are impelled to
come to Wall street to borrow simply from
the false notions they have acquired Of the
place. They imagine that it is land flow
ing with milk and honey and paved with
gold eagles and trade dollars redeemable at
| par.
They think that all they have to do is to
ask and what they ask for will be forth
coming. Their disappointment is woful
when they undertake to carry out their be-
lief.
1t was only little while ago that man
of more than ordinarily intelligent appear
ance stepped up to Wall street man
whom he had never seen before and said:
Il live out here in Jersey. I got leetle
hard up and thought l would come in and
borrow little money to help me over. I'd
| like to get $1,000 of you. 1 suppose you
can spare itjust as we'll as not, you have so
, much money down here
| The IGan was surprised when it was sug-
| geSted to him that he was ''of his base"
| Not having a ferry ticket he crossed the
river on the floating ice and walked home.
The remainder of his days will De spent
| with unkind feelings toward Wall street.
More light for Liberty.
WASHINGTON. March 29.-The light
/ hcase board has completed arrangements for
increasing and improving the illumination
of the Bartholdi statue Of Liberty. A
strong lens viii be placed in torch and
| Il IL It'll